William's Song a Day Blog - est. September 2007

Happy Halloween all! I decided to pick a song today that fit the occasion, so I chose Witches Promise by Jethro Tull. It is a really interesting love song of sorts that has to do with the Celtic style witch instead of the Hollywood style. What is odd about this song is that it was done around 1970, this is the time that Tull was doing more blues and straight up rock rather than the progressive stuff, (like this song); it would have been right at home on their stuff from 75 to 79. This song was a hit single for them in Europe and was later re-released on the Living in the Past album. Here is the studio version on YouTube. Here is their "Top of the Pops" performance on YouTube. Both Clive Bunker and Martin Barre look rather bored in this video. +

This is one of my all time favourite pieces of music and simply put is amazing. Almost everyone has heard it; even if they do not know it, especially around this time of year. BWV 565 is thought to have been composed around the year 1705, which is right in the center of the Baroque period of music. J.S. Bach is the most recognizable of the 70, or there about other Bachs that are published composers; a very prolific musical family. Funnily enough during his life he did not get the appreciation he deserved; it wasn't until the Romance Period when the composer Felix Mendelssohn found his work and gave J.S. Bach the recognition he deserved that he became famous. The musical form this uses is first: the Toccata, which is basically a piece of music written for the keyboard which is written to showcase the ability of musician playing; Bach was considered to be one of the best keyboardists of his time. Think of this as a flashy guitar solo at the beginning of a song. The fugue, on the othe...

I found this song a while ago and immediately fell in love with it; I usually turn it up every time it comes up on my iPod's playlist. Before I found this song I never really was a Faith No More fan, however I still appreciated their music, now I have come to like a lot of their stuff because of it. Here is the music video on YouTube. Here is a live performance on YouTube. +

A bunch of songs today were wanting to get picked, however this one won out. This one is very weird and almost everyone that I know hates this song, but I love it. It is another song with a story behind it, this one is about Earth's first contact; the aliens here are called The Children of the Sun . It is very Sci-Fi sounding and a bit repetitive, which probably puts most people off. I heard that Billy Thorpe died earlier this year as well of a heart attack, so this is a good pick for yet another reason. Here is the extended studio version on YouTube. +

This is a really neat song; it is one that goes into the background very easily if you want to use it as "wallpaper" music or you can listen to it and hear all of the excellent musicianship. There are a lot of layers to this track, which makes the song very fun to listen to. However the overall length of the song probably is not every person's cup of tea. Every musician really does his part to make it an incredible one. I really like the dynamics they use in the song especially the interludes and pick-ups; Progressive Rock at its best! Here is the studio version on YouTube. Here is a classic live performance on YouTube. +

I have been picking some covers lately, and here is another one. This song was originally written and recorded by Rammstein off of the Herzeleid album. I like both versions, however I like the original Rammstein version, ( which can be found here on YouTube ), more. I am picking this version because I loved what Apocalyptica did with the song and I absolutely love Nina Hagen's vocals on this one. Her lower-register vocals are just amazing, she has vocals in this one similar to a Disney movie villainess and almost appears witch-like in the video. A pretty good treat for near Halloween. Here is the music video on YouTube. Here is a television performance on YouTube. +

I found this song a couple of months ago, it is cover of Jethro Tull song which went unreleased until put as a bonus track on the M.U.--Best of Tull album. For those unaware, Blackmore's Night is a Renaissance-style band with metal influences. The band is primarily Ritchie Blackmore, (from Deep Purple and Rainbow), and his wife on vocals. I really like what they did with this 'Tull song and how they made it their own. The song itself is really good but did not make it on to any of their albums for a variety of reasons; mostly because it doesn't fit musically on the album which it was written for. The song seems to use symbolic representation to describe what Ian Anderson goes through before and after a show; maybe one show in particular. Anyway, I really like this cover, especially the vocals and guitar. Here is the studio version on YouTube. +